Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-06-10
BEHOLD ALSO THE SHIPS"
Rev. DR.. Talmages Sermon to the Nava
Posts.

Decoration Day Services i'll the Brool>iy1
Survivors of tle Navy Al
viscd to Take Admiral Farrasut as Thei
ENemplar.
BBooKLyN, May 22.-As this is the
time for the decoration of the graves o
those who fell i'll war, the naval posts i'll
vited the Rev. DIR. Talmage, ID. d.. te
preach sermon at the Brooklyn Iaber-
nacle appropriate to the occasion. as Otter
in the annual commemoration but little hae
been said of those who served i'll the navy,
The congregation sang with great spirit;
My country it's of thee,
Sweet land of liberty.
DR.. Talmage's text was from James iii
4-"Behold also the ships" He said:
If this exclamation was appropriate
about 1850 years ago, when it was written
concerning the crude fishing smacks that
sailed Lake Galilee, how much more app
propriate in an age which has launched
from the dry docks for purposes of peace
the Arizoua, of the Guion Line; the City
of Richmond. of the Inman Line; the
Egypt, of the National Line; the Ger
manic. of the White Star Line; the Circas-
STA, of the Anchor Line; the Etruria, Of
the Cunard Line. aud the Great Eastern,
with hull $50 feet long-not a failure, for
it helped lay the Atlantic Gable, and that
was enough glory for one ships existence
and i'll an age which for purposes of war
Aas launched the screw sloops like the
Idaho, the Shenandoah, the Ossipee, and
our ironclads like the kalamazoo, the
which have already been buried in the deep
llIka tho Monitor Wa +hp
Neehawken, and the Tecumseh, the tenn
pests ever since sounding volley over
their wntery sepulchers, and the scared
veterans OF war shipping like the Consti,u-
ton, or the Alliance, or the Constellation
that have swung into the naval yards to
spend their last days, their decks now all
silent of the feet that trod them, their rig
ging all silent of the hands that chung to
them, their port holes silent of the braZen
throats that once Numbered out of them.
Ii in the first century, when war vessels
were dependent on the oars that padded
at the side Of them for propulsion, my text
was suggestive, with how much more en-
phasis, and meaning, and overwhelming
"Reminiscences we can cry out, as We see the
kearsage lay across the bows of the Ala
bama and sink it, teaching foreign nations
they had better keep their hands off our
American fight. or as we see the ram Abe
marie, of the Confederates, running out
and in the Roanoke, and up and down the
coast, throwing everything into confusion
as no other craft ever did, pursued by the
Miami, the Ceres the Southtield, the Sas-
sacus, the Mattabesett, the Whitehead. the
Commodore Hull, the Louisiana. the
and other armed vessels. all
trying in vain to catch her until Capt.
Gushing, q years of age,and his men
blew her up, himself and only one other
escaping, and as | see the flagship Hart
ford, and the Richmond, and the Monon-
gahela, with other gunboats, sweep past
the batteries of Port Hudson, aud the
flows forever free to all north
ern and southern craft, cry out with pa
triotic emotion that I cannot suppress, if
would, and would not if l could: behold
also the ships"
At the annual decoration of graves north
and south among Federals and Confeder-
ates full justice has been done to the
OF those who fought OH the land
in our sad contest, and not enough has
been said of those who on ships deck
dared and suffered all things. Lord God
Of the rivers and the sea, help me in this
SO, ye adnirals, commodores,
captains, pilots, gunners,
boatswains, sailmallers, surgeons, stokers,
and seamen of ali names. to
use your own parlance, we might as we'll
get under way and stand out toward sea.
Let all land lubbers 90 ashore. Full speed
now! -Four bells!
Nv,er since the sea fight Of Lepanto,
where 500 royal galleys, manned by 80, GEO
warriors, at sunrise, Sept. G, 1911, met $50
royal galleys, manned by 100, 0GO men, and
in the four hours of battle 5000 fell OH one
side and $4,000 on the other; yea, never
since the day when at Ac,ium, thirty-one
years before Christ. Augustus, with $50
ships, scattered the 800 ships of Mark
Antony and gained universal dominion as
the prize; yea, since the day when at
Salamis the 10000 galleys of the Persians,
by 100000 men, were crushed by
Greeks with less than third of that force;
yea, never since the time of Noah, the first
slip captain, has the world seen such q
creation as that of the Ameri-
can navy in 1861. There were about 800
seamen in all the naval stations
and receiving ships, and here and there an
old vessel. Yet orders were given TO block
ade 800 miles Of seacoast, greater than
the whole coast of Europe, and, beside
that, the Ohio, Tennessee, Cumberland,
and other great rivers, cover
ing an extent of 1000 more miles, were to
be patrolled. No wonder the whole civil
lied world burst into gutfaw of laughter at
the seeming impossibility. But the work
was done, done almost Immediately, done
and done with speed and
consum,nate skill that eclipsed all the his
tory of naval architecture. What brilliant
achievements are suggested by the mere
mention of the names of the rear admirals!
II all they did should be written, every one,
suppose that the world itself could not con-
tain the books that should be written. But
these names have received the honors due.
The most of them went to their graves I'M
der the cannonade of all the forts. navy
yards and mem war, the flags of all the
shipping and capitals at half mast.
But recite to-day the deeds of our
naval heroes who have not yet received APP
propriate recognition. "Behold also the
ships" AS we will never know what our
prosperity is worth until we realize
what it cost, recall the unrecited fact
that the men of the navy ran especial risks.
They had not only the human weaponry to
centend with, but the tides, the fog, the
storm. Not like other ships could they run
into harbor at the approach of an equinox,
or cyclone, or hurricane, because the
harbors we're hostile. A miscalculation of
a tide might bring them on bar, and fog
might overthrow all the plans of wisest
and admiral, and accident
might leave them, not on the land ready
for an ambulance, but at the bottom of the
sea. as when the torpedo blew up the Te-